


Lady Iron Tongue

by Selnyam



Category: Changeling: The Lost
Genre: Beating, Changelings, Fae & Fairies, Fairy Tale Style, Gen, Kidnapping, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 09:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18192569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selnyam/pseuds/Selnyam
Summary: The Legend of Lady Iron Tongue, Queen of the Summer Court, Founding Member of the Freehold of Fields(a backstory of sorts for one of the major NPCs in my Changeling the Lost world)





	Lady Iron Tongue

Being trapped in the forge room, where there were no windows, caused her to lose track of days. All she had was the heat, the smell of metal, and the work. She could not remember much from her life before she was taken. Only her mother’s face, the feel of holding her baby brother in her arms, chopping vegetables to add to stew. There had been a fire, and she had been told to run into the forest, towards the stream for safety. The forest was dark and she ran and ran. The branches and shrubs cut and tore her skin, yet still she ran until she could run no more. Collapsing to the floor, sleep quickly overtook her. She awoke as The Tall Man with the Embers for Eyes clamped manacles on her wrists and legs.  
He had taken her tongue. The pain was sharp and startling, but she had little time for pain. Dragged into the forge room, he had chained her up and directed her to work. With no tongue she had no way to communicate with the scant few other workers, as the chains kept hands from being free enough for signals. So she worked. Time stretched on and on, and she worked. She began to keep track of ore and material shipments. It gave her something, anything besides the work. Eventually after the third of a thousand loads dumped in the vat, did she stop feeling the heat. Her skin beginning to harden, becoming like stone. Once the heat left, all she had was the gnawing hunger. Food was nonexistent, as was water. Eventually even that small pain went away.  
Still she worked. Place the metal in the vat, watch it melt. Pour it into the molds. Time passed, metal was melted. She made weapons, chains, tools, all sorts of things. She worked. The Tall Man with the Embers for Eyes and his guards yelled and whipped. If a worker was too slow sometimes they used their fists, or simply cut them down where they stood. Some of the others were not strong enough and they were taken away. New people took their place. A very special shipment arrived. It was then that the plan formed.  
The Tall Man with the Embers for Eyes got very excited when the sky iron came. He brushed his finger across it and his skin blackened and burned. He flinched away and hid the wound, but her eyes were quick and her memory strong. Over time she had learned that the metals each had a voice. Aluminum was weak, and light hearted. Gold was soft and sweet. Steel gruff and stern. The sky iron was charming and eager, she spoke to it with her mind and it made her a deal. For the sky iron could feed on her captors. To it, they were a delicacy. Collect enough of it, and feed it her captors will and life and she could be free.  
More time passed, but she had a drive to keep working now. When more sky iron came in she saved small shards, placing them in her mouth or hiding them in small openings on her hard stone-like skin. Slowly her collection grew over thousands upon thousands of shipments, until she had enough. Between orders and while the guards had left the room she quickly dumped the small collection into the vat, the heat making a small cup or so of molten iron. She quickly picked up the container, and dumped it into her open mouth.  
The pain caused her to nearly black out, but she endured it. It was worse than when she’d had her tongue pulled from her mouth. She closed her eyes letting the iron feed on her blood and conviction. She forced herself to keep working, they couldn't catch on to her plan. The pain subsided five shipments later, and she opened her mouth and looked at The Tall Man with the Embers for Eyes.  
"You are scum! Filth! I will free myself and leave your corpse behind me!" As she spoke for the first time since being taken, her new iron tongue sealed their pact, the words lashing out like blades, cutting her captor's skin open.He stood there shocked, watching as his blood began to flow. Using her rising adrenaline and rage, her gaze whipped to her chains "Weak shoddy things!" Again the magic flowed at the chains. As if severed by a blade, they snapped setting her free. At this The Tall Man with the Embers for Eyes moved forward. He could not let her escape!  
"You cannot hold me any longer you damnable coward!" She shrieked, her tongue catching the light of the molten metal and the magic lashed out again, severing her tormentor’s head from his shoulders. Drawing blades his guards moved forward. More words brought them to their knees, bleeding, dying. The sky iron was pleased and thanked her for the meal. She stepped over his corpse, and ran from her prison, vanishing into the maze of tunnels. She would find a way home. She must.


End file.
